Fortune Cannot Recompense
Posted on Thu Oct 12th, 2023 @ 7:33pm by Lieutenant JG Jaya Maera Garlake & Lieutenant Colonel Storr Garlake & Commander Arianna Frost & Lieutenant Commander BaoJun Qiao & Gunnery Sergeant Roderik Kos & Lieutenant Teejay
6,358 words; about a 32 minute read
Mission:
Season 1 Interlude II (E5.5)
Location: Abandoned Oceanic Observatory | Risa
Timeline: ID 6
All sense of time was gone. Jaya and Storr were drugged, abducted, hauled to an unknown location, and then awakened only to be tortured by sadistic enemies who thought to execute their hastily plotted vengeance. But their haste would be their undoing. Somehow... help was coming. That much Jaya knew. But their abductors weren't taking chances. Whoever came to their rescue would have more than armed adversaries to contend with.
At least Storr and Jaya were together. Rather than tied down separately, the tables to which they were bound had been dragged to the main entrance and placed on one end side-by-side. It was just enough for Jaya to reach Storr's hand, fingertips outstretched, and imbue him with a jolt of courage that would, barring medical treatment, keep his nervous system from going into shutdown from the burn shock he was visibly suffering.
"Storr..." she whispered. "Stay with me, love. Help is coming. Just stay awake a little longer..."
Bright. Light. Jolt.
White, shocking light blinded him despite his closed eyes and the pain...his eyes fluttered open, though not without effort from his blood-encrusted eyelids. Storr's head lolled downward to glance at wires leading to his body in the downward parts, a quick trace seeing them disappear into a small box sitting underneath an Andorian with a churlish grin.
"I see you're back with us," he said, no rush to the Andorian's voice. Raw pain radiated from Garlake's scalp and jaw while the stickiness of dried blood matting the areas told him this wasn't the beginning of whatever sick and depraved session he was in.
"Who...wh..." the Commandant began before being seized with a coughing fit in which he hacked up a considerable bloody mess onto the floor. Staring at the quivering glob of mucus, slime, and blood, it seemed to be the perfect picture of the Afrikaner at the moment.
"I'm getting really tired of answering this same question repeatedly," the blue-antennaed man intoned, standing and approaching Storr. "Perhaps this will jog your memory." He grinned viciously and pressed a small red button on a remote, sending an instant white-hot sensation from Storr's groin up to his chest and out of his mouth.
Who was yelling so loud? Storr wondered. It sounded like that guy was really getting it put to him. Thankfully his body was all tingly and...detached? Yes, that was a good word. It felt like pins and needles, with a really, really raw throat. And head. And jaw, and...
"AAAAAHHHHH!!!!" Garlake was suddenly brought back to the moment as his own voice faded away, not because of new pain but because it had stopped. His breathing came in halting gasps, and the smell of burning flesh and hair permeated mixed with seawater would have made him vomit if there was anything left in his stomach. He dry heaved, regardless.
"Now, now, you're going to ruin the floors." the Andorian tsk-tsked the Memory Theta Commandant.
"Hurry it up; we don't have all day." a voice from above said bruskly. Storr knew that voice. But why here? And now? And in this way?
"...Kontos." was all he could muster before the Andorian pressed the little red button again, causing someone to scream mightily.
Someone really ought to help that guy out...at least get him a Band-Aid or something, Storr thought. He was just glad it wasn't happening to him. Hmm...why was that smell so familiar?
AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" His voice died off in a guttural wretch, a few puffs of black and gray smoke puffed up and rolling at the top of the ceiling. Garlake's vision gained and lost focus several times but saw things...things like bloody pliers, scalpels, and other implements too horrific to imagine. And the blood was fresh. Because it was his.
"You know, that beard and hair is still much too nice. Can't send you back to the misses without a quick spruce up!" The blue man shuffled his hand around on the tray to remove a rasp, still dripping. Storr's eyes widened at the sudden recent memory. "Oh, you remember now? Great. Now you can remember what my brother felt like after you killed him on Earth!" With a quick flick, the rasp grated up the right side of Storr's face, the sickening sound of metal against flesh and bone giving away to the squish of skin separating from its members. Garlake inhaled rapidly and nearly passed out again, but his head lolled back down, refusing him quick release.
"Wha...what are you talking about?" Storr whispered, any movement of his jaw creating a horrific squelching sound and associated pain. To be fair, Storr Garlake had taken his fair share of lives but very, very few on Earth. None, now that he thought about it.
"You killed my brother when he had almost been rescued. New Zealand, sound familiar?"
Garlake's mind whirred, skipped, and hiccuped like a bad recording on an isolinear chip.
Wait...
New Zealand...
Maqi...
Penal Colony...
Breen...
"Otosiv."
The Andorean grinned salaciously. "Yes, the venerated and highly decorated Maqi Commander Otosiv th'Ethirer, brutally gunned down at the moment of his heroic rescue by a no-name Marine, a human no less." He spit in Storr's face, to accentuate his remark. "My brother."
"Now, for that correct answer, I think I get another hunk of this hunk," the sadistic alien said, roughly running his hands through Garlake's hair and, roughly grasping it, took the rasp and sickeningly raked it across Storr's scalp until the Andoran's hand was full of blood and hair. Red rushed across Storr's vision which thankfully mixed with his tears, hiding them, and his throat was too raw to even scream at the pain. He still tried, though.
"Now, let's work on those fingers some more," Otosiv's brother said, chuckling, as he tossed Storr's hair into a corner of the floor with a *thwap* and rummaged around on the tool plate again. "They're far, far too straight and numerous..."
The shuttle-turned-submersible puttered along and ever downward as it followed the transoceanic currents of Risa. While there wouldn't be a way to mask their approach indefinitely, riding the natural streams to their destination would at least keep them from sticking out against the wider aquatic environment. Ferrofax, given the chance to stretch his digital legs, guided the submersible along the meandering trajectory while executing DECM protocols that would also keep them from setting off every Risian Coast Guard alarm in the hemisphere. Covert needs being what they were, radio silence had to be in effect. The rescue team would be on their own.
Ari re-checked her weapon, and then the straps of the additional gear she carried, just like the rest of the team. She looked over at Teejay before she stepped over to the man whom she had a very complicated relationship with. "How good are you at delivering babies?"
Lost in his own, quiet little world as he simply listened to the various sounds about them, Teejay didn't immediately look up, or answer the question. His hands rested in his lap as he sat cross-legged upon the sub's seat across from Frost, and Teejay took a moment to still his emotions. Fingertips touching. Eyes closed. Breathe. Count. Breathe. Count. Exhale. After a moment, then his dark eyes landed on the Commander's own, and his whole persona exuded calm. "I don't know yet," Teejay said, honestly. "Usually, I'm only asked to deal with dead people, and they don't give much feedback about my bedside manner." Flippant, but deadpan, his gaze remained on Frost's as he gauged her reaction. "I know where to look, and I'm sure momma's gonna be pushing hard. Let's just get them outta there in one piece so I can learn a new skill, okay?"
Arianna had to chuckle a little bit. "Yeah, I'll do my best. Rodi and his lot know what they're doing," she nodded over to the small Marine ensemble before her own somber expression came into view. "We could be heading into a shootout, so make sure you pick your shots, in case they decide to be stupid and utilize the hostages."
Levity was always a good refuge, and Teejay was happy enough to see Frost smile. He still had a whole bunch of feelings buried nice and deep down in that Vulcan emotional refuge and no intention of unlocking them here and now. This was a rescue mission, and the plan in hand outweighed any personal shit between him and the Commander. "Not my first gunfight," he confirmed back to Arianna with a wry expression. "Or hostage rescue." He looked to Rodi as the Marine spoke.
"No need to worry, lieutenant," Rodi said calmly from his seat next to the door. "I've delivered two babies when I was on the Dakota." The stocky marine was clad in vacuum-rated combat armor. The butt of his rifle rested on the ground, between his feet next to his helmet.
Sergeant Bradley chuckled. "Yes sir, ma'am. The gunny here is as proficient about damaging people as he is in patching them up." The squad's pointman sat comfortably in his own armor, even a little slouched. Which was impressive considering the segmented plating.
"Good to know," Teejay returned to Rodi's comment. "You need to step in and play Doc; I've got you covered." He patted his own phaser to make the point. "Definitely seen more deaths than infant deliveries," he added with a calm, wry expression.
"I think all of us have, solely and collectively even more so," Ari sighed, then looked up at the ceiling, "Ferrofax, if you could be so kind as to give us a positional readout when we reach the observatory? I'd rather we not walk straight into the kill zone from the off. It'll look shocking on my leadership test." While her tone was flat, she hoped the others could tell that she was indeed making a joke.
"On the plus side, Commander," Bao said from his position to the side managing their electronics suites. "At least you would not have to listen to the inquisition into your leadership abilities, and none of us would be able to testify against you." He tapped a few things on the console. He considered a moment. "On that note, commander, what service would you like me to provide?"
"I like the way you think, Commander!" Ari nodded to Bao with a chuckle. "Actually, you'll probably have better focus than Ferrofax right now for the job. See if you can get in there and see where Kontos' mooks are and where our people are in relation to them. We need to know what we're walking into."
The Lagashi nodded as he interfaced with the systems and projected a map onto the shuttle's largest display. "We are approximately 4 nautical miles away from the outpost at this time. The plans say there are 2 full airlocks and one lockout trunk, along with a moon pool in the maintenance garage. I have access to the maintenance system. Most of the base operates on minimal power, but a few areas draw more energy. It would stand to reason that resistance will be centered in those areas. Based on what I see here, the moon pool is our best choice for entry as this shuttle is not equipped to interface with the airlocks."
Frost nodded, "understood. Can you feed updates to Rodi and co as we go? Now given your skillset, I'd prefer if you stayed on the shuttle as our eyes and ears, but I won't stop you if you wish to join us on the ground."
"I will do my best and also attempt to suborn systems as you go along. As for the other, I am fine remaining here. Someone needs to keep the shuttle secured."
Ari nodded, "thank you, Commander." With that said, she left Bao to do as instructed while she joined Teejay, Rodi, and his Marines as they made final incursion prep.
"Who would've thought that the SFMC would actually do a water-based assault? It's a shame it's all hush hush." Lance Corporal Haaskivi said from his seat. A heavy phaser rifle on his lap.
Ari chuckled as she stepped over, "We can always make a public-access op up and graft the maneuver on that." She said with a shrug as she picked up her own weapon and gave it a quick check.
For his part, Teejay was quiet and contemplative. Calm before the storm, his thoughts drifted to Leah and sent a silently spoken good luck charm in her unseen direction. His weapon was already checked, his mind set, and he didn't need to go back over either. The team's banter washed over his ears, and he steadied his internal focus.
"Oi, boss!" shouted one of the mercenaries. "They ain't coming through the airlock! Says here a submersible just came up through the pool!"
"Impossible!" Kihrab, the Andorian ringleader, said. "We locked that from the inside."
"It would appear they have managed to override it remotely," said a calm Vulcanoid voice.
"Then it seems somebody had better rip the door panels out of the walls!" Kihrab exclaimed. "We're fortified against the airlocks, not the moon pool. Reverse countermeasures!"
Five marines swarmed out of the hatch of the shuttle. Sergeant Bradley, Rodi's second, came out first. His rifle was slung across his chest as he held up a portable forcefield shield. It was a bit of a single-use kit, still in the final trial stages. But being hush-hush had its privileges. It prevented the big hatch from turning into a kill box.
Behind Bradley, Rodi stepped out of the shuttle. He made the short jump across the water, smoothly dropped to one knee, and pointed his rifle down the first corridor. It was also the only corridor in moonpool bay. With the rest of the team following the first two marines out, Corporal Hsu took up their rear.
"Let's move out," Rodi said calmly over the open comm link the whole team had. Bradley had tossed the discharged forcefield projector back into the shuttle. He tapped his boss on the shoulder, and Rodi rose. Together the two men pushed into the first corridor. The lights on the sides of their rifles danced across the bulkheads. When they made their first turn, those same lights danced across two Bajoran faces. The Bajorans raised disruptor rifles, Cardassian in origin. Before they could even get a proper aim, they both crumpled. The tell-tale sound of marine phaser rifles discharging rang along the hallway. "Don't slow down," Rodi called, already stepping over the dead Bajorans.
Rodi and his Marines were always an impressive lot to run incursions with, regardless of Rodi not volunteering with the Phantom incursion. Everyone had their down moments, and Ari understood that. "Moving.." she gave a short sign of acknowledgment as she followed Rodi's instruction.
Swift, confident, and unspeaking, Teejay fell into position behind Frost as they'd discussed previously and noted the rear guard Marine behind him. Moonpool negotiated, squad on the move; he was suitably impressed by the clean exit and motion. Short and sweet, efficient and mobile, they passed deeper into the complex, and Teejay paused only very briefly to check the dead bodies were really dead. No offense to Rodi's team, but the half-human had seen some really weird shit in his time, and this was a force of habit.
Bao's voice came through the comms. "Checkmate Red 6, DUSTOFF Romeo, over," he said, pausing to wait for Rodi's acknowledgment. "Tracking ten hostiles six meters forward right in the communal area. Additional hostiles 10 meters forward left airlock. Proceed right. Airlock will lock and flood, do not engage. Readback, over."
Acknowledgement from Rodi, depending on which one of them wants to claim the command call sign or yell at him for saying he's drowning mercs
The long corridor opened up into a communal area. The transparent aluminum walls were caked in algae, casting the entire room in the most ominous green light. Half of the interior lights were off, and the others were flickering more than they projected properly. The center of the room was filled with a large circular table, bolted to the floor. It was no longer surrounded by any chairs. Across the walls were several stacks of crates and boxes, either covered in interesting fungi or clearly rummaged through and ransacked. Also in the room were ten people of various races, waiting in an ambush.
Five meters before the final turn into the communal area Angelu Hsu, a professional marine pyrotechnic, had come up from her rearguard. In her hands were four long metal tubes. Each had a spoon attached to them, and each was clearly missing a safety pin. "Cover your ears, close your eyes." She whispered to the civilians before throwing all four stun grenades into the communal area. Five seconds later, ear-splitting roars echoed through the room, and back into the three corridors connecting to the room.
The five marines, trained and prepared for the experience, rushed in. Rifles raised, target-assisting AI already nudging the barrels on target. Three enemies, an Andorian, a Nausicaan, and a human fell swiftly. But then the counter-fire came in. Disruptor blasts slammed into the mouth of the tunnel; one had an ineffective angle and bounced off of Ax't into a bulkhead. That is when Haaskivi found his angle, mounted his heavy repeating phaser, and pushed a knot of five enemies into a cowering position. Two heads turned into smoldering heaps as Bradley and Hsu found marks.
Rodi's comm link filled the ears of the fleeters over the hiss of the heavy phaser. "Need you all to move to the starboard corridor now!" Followed by some additional hissing from Rodi's own rifle in an effort to suppress their temporarily cowering opponents.
"Moving. Teejay, on me!" Ari responded and proceeded to move as ordered.
Ears still ringing from the aftermath of the blast (no hand-to-ear seal was ever perfect when you had such sensitive hearing), Teejay recentered himself on his rifle and Frost's request a little slower than the trained squad of armed bastards. He stumbled backward as a fire burned deep into his right shoulder, bending a knee to stall a fall to the ground, and recovered with a muted grunt of pain. From his pocket, an infuser was rapidly drawn, pressed to the wound, and returned. Analgesics and a self-prepped, heady mix of meds coursed through his system and numbed the pain to a duller roar as he stumbled back upwards and followed Frost.
TAG Fleeters moving, anyone wanna get shot?
TAG ANY (firefight)
"Checkmate Red 6, track Deltan life sign ten meters at 275 degrees. Track additional hostiles flanking to my position. Moonpool is sealed, but advise prepare for resistance on egress."
Rifle raised to said shoulder, Teejay grit his teeth and fired at the last couple of remaining opponents whose heads were back down. A satisfying parting shot at a tiny revealing sound found purchase in flesh, and he kept his back to Frost to support Hsu's rear guard as they exited the area for the next section.
Kihrab th'Ethirer, the notorious mercenary boss and butcher of multiple sectors, realized this was not a standard Starfleet Security team conducting a rescue. Quite the contrary. This was a fire team of elite Starfleet Marines who were typically reserved for honor guards of high-profile locations and dignitaries. And they were cutting through his mercenary band like a hot knife through butter. Sure, Colonel Storr Garlake was an officer, but he was vacationing on Risa. How did an elite hit squad find them so quickly? And how were they overriding all of their defenses? It was as if the gods themselves turned against him. What had been the perfect torture dungeon now became a watery tomb.
One thing the Andorian with the eyepatch knew was that he would not go out like his brother, whom Storr had killed years ago. He had retreated to the airlock where he had first intended to use the Garlakes as human shields. Now he was going to use them as leverage to barter for passage. If Starfleet wanted him, they were going to pay a dear price.
Stelio Kontos, the disgraced Deltan diplomat, stood idly by, unsure of his place in affairs. Handing his disruptor to the large but nonplussed man, Kihrab said, "Cover me."
Whatever was going on throughout the underwater observatory had the man on the edge. Jaya could feel his anxiety rise to its peak. Still strapped to the upright bed next to Storr, she could only watch as the Andorian merc boss worked out whatever desperate plan he had hatched.
"You're going to suffer today, Garlake, one way or another." Kihrab leered into Storr's semi-conscious face before he stepped over to Jaya. "As for you, dearie, you're going to beg your man here to call off his dogs. I'll guarantee it."
Jaya met his gaze but said nothing as he presented a combat knife and held it to her throat.
"Move, and you die." His dark eye was a pool of hatred as he pressed the upturned biobed's restraint mechanism.
For the first time in what seemed ages, Jaya could move her arms and legs. She looked at the glint of the knife's edge that was a hair's breadth from her throat. Then she looked the Andorian deep in the eye and grabbed his wrist. Instantly she felt his taut muscles and tendons coil in preparation for a lethal slash against her jugular, but her attack was not physical.
Instead, Jaya reached deep within herself, beyond the executive function of her conscious mind into the core of her being, into the vault of her hopes of motherhood, into the wellspring of her scandalous love for Storr, into the spirit of Seyalia itself, homeworld of her Deltan people. Summoning what she found there, she transferred the surge of empathic energy through her palms into Kihrab's nervous system and became a conduit of psionic fury bursting with ill intent.
Fear.
Doubt.
Terror.
Trauma.
PAIN.
The Andorian's pupil oscillated between a dilated saucer and a pinpoint prick. Air escaped his lungs in a scream so shrill and heinous that it tore his vocal cords. His entire body convulsed as if electrified. And, in a way, it was. The stimulation was overwhelming, canceling out all voluntary movements and most involuntary reflexes. He fell to his knees, his face frozen in a silent rictus while his diaphragm struggled to remember how to contract and expand.
Stumbling, barely able to keep on her feet, Jaya earned a deep gash across her shoulder that cut nearly to the bone, but her vital neckline had been spared. Never had she felt so exhausted, so...
"You bitch!"
A fist with a dark complexion struck her in the side of the head. Jaya's vision filled with stars, somehow both snapping her out of her exhaustion but still tempting her toward unconsciousness. The world was spinning. So was she. Another strike had spun her around on her feet. She hadn't seen it coming, only feeling the pain of impact.
"All you had to do was follow tradition. Follow the law of our people! But you couldn't. You, degenerate little cunt that you are, couldn't resist breaking our most sacred ways and foisting your abomination to the shame of our entire world!"
Another strike. Jaya had a hard time processing words now. Was that Stelio's voice? Was she on her feet? The room wasn't even spinning now. It was blurring in and out of focus entirely. Then she saw Storr. Her heart soared. She reached for him, but instead of his warm flesh, she felt cold metal and... and...
CLICK.
Stelio gasped. In her blind struggle, Jaya had pressed the release mechanism for Storr's restraints.
The beefy, blood-caked, and burnt Afrikaner flopped onto the floor like the dead fish he felt like. Felt was a strong word, though, as sensations seemed to be coming and going in a chaotic fashion. Pain? Cold? Wet? Bright? Loud? They all came together in a cacophony, each feeling muting and then coming back in roaring fashion before mixing and then disappearing again. His muscles spasmed from being released from the table after having been attached for so long, the twitching not helping him understand his body or surroundings at all. The cold, hard, unmoving steel was soothing in its coolness, but the small teeth etched into the floor's ridges to allow for better traction only exacerbated his open wounds. The sounds, too, were odd, though he recognized many of them. What was Ari and...that Vulcan half-breed...Teerobin...Teewarbler...Tee, oh, frack it. If they were here, then hopefully, that meant good things. At least they could save Jaya.
Ari and Teejay arrived just in time to see Storr's restraints being released; they had heard however all the vitriol that had been hurled Jaya's way beforehand, as they'd paused to assess the situation quickly. If they didn't act immediately, the Colonel wouldn't get a chance even to get up. Even if they hadn't beaten him or drugged him, just being retrained for an extended amount of time would have required Storr a moment or two to regain himself.
So, they needed to buy him time.
"Oi, fuckface!" Ari bellowed as she and Teejay stepped out, rifles ready to fire. "You can't do anything right, can you? Not even the third time's the charm...well, maybe. At least this time, you will die." "Come on, turn to face me, cunt!"
A Klingon charged Ari from the side and slammed her into Teejay, bearhugging them both into a tackle to the ground. Spittle flung from his mouth as he put a crushing squeeze on both of them with his massive arm span.
Pain from the front as the Klingon slammed into them, pain from the back as she got slammed onto Teejay's rifle, armor and finally him. Ari felt pain cloud her senses. They needed to get him off of them. Ari managed to get a hand free though she was sure she felt a crack there somewhere in said hand.
It was functional enough to grab her sidearm and press it at the Klingon's side and pull the trigger as he lay on top of her as she lay on top of Teejay, who was hopefully still conscious.
Black bile mixed with spittle flew from the Klingon's mouth in a roar of pain, indicating one of his livers had ruptured. He seized Ari's sidearm away from her wounded hand and crushed it in his mighty fist. With all three still entangled, the grappling tug-of-war ensued.
Teejay was only half-Vulcan, but Vulcans were three times as strong as a normal human on their own, and with human emotions running free and mixing with hard drugs (thanks to the previously taken infuser) and adrenaline, it didn't matter which half was which, only that he was pissed off and ready to react.
From under Frost, who was under the Klingon, came a mightly grumbling roar that would not have been strange emanating from a bear or a large predatory feline. His rifle caught between him and Frost, dug into the Commander while also finding a deeply uncomfortable angle across the already wounded Teejay. He howled, pain meds and actual pain fighting to drive him wilder than he usually liked, but right now, crazy mad was going to be a good thing. Well, a better than dying thing, anyways...
With raw desperation and pure fury working for him, Teejay rolled all three of them, using his rifle as a fulcrum as he dug the stock sideways into/through the crook of the Klingon's right elbow and the muzzle into something as close to the warrior's face, neck or chest as the half-Vulcan could muster. And then he twisted, firing only when he was certain of his aim (or at least 100% sure of which body he was firing into), as he continued to drive metal and hard plastic into flesh and bone. "FUCK OFF AND DIE!!!" He bellowed, slipping then into a makeshift, mongrel dialect that he'd learned as a child and what sounded like an aggressive mix of Klingon and Earth Germanic. If he was going out, he was taking this bastard out first...
Ari had enough presence of mind, luckily, through a wall of pain to scramble out of the way of the monster mash between Teejay and the Klingon. With all the flashing and loud noises, her vision was blurry, in a frighteningly familiar way.
"No, no, no, no, not now!" She needed to focus; she needed to get to Jaya and get her out of the firing line.
Getting onto her feet, Ari let out a wail of pain as blood rushed down to her crushed hand, and muscles in the front and back of her torse tried to cooperate through severe contusions. She managed to grab her sidearm in her good hand and duck and duck out of the way towards Jaya, laying down suppressing shots as she reached the bald woman.
"Shit!" Ari cursed, hoping to all the saints and gods above that the next few moments wouldn't be the end of them both. "Jaya, you still in there?" She could barely hear herself, through all the noise of the weapon discharges and screams.
With one hand out of commission, Ari leaned into Jaya as gingerly as possible to support the weight that would inevitably pull the Deltan to the floor. She raised her sidearm and shot at foot binds first, then one hand bind, then the other.
Jaya allowed herself to be led along by Ari's voice. Her vision still had not yet cleared, and her balance was precarious at best. "Storr..." she said in a soft, mournful moan.
"He's fine! I need to get you out of here." Ari wrapped her injured hand around her torso, her good arm holding the sidearm at the ready. "Checkmate, Red 5, Scylla secured, have eyes on Charibdis, need extraction." She called over the comms. Scylla was Jaya's designation, and Charybdis was Storr's. "Jaya, hold onto my backpack and just follow; it's going to be bumpy."
Head swimming and vision fading, Jaya stumbled along without knowing where she was, only trusting the familiar voice of the person whose name she couldn't recall at the moment.
Meanwhile, in the communal area, the marines were getting bogged down. Rodi, being closest to the hallway, his charges went down and heard the fight. He tried lifting his head up to duck into the tunnel to help. His helmet received a disruptor bolt for his effort. It dazed Rodi for a few moments. Those moments were enough for a rather ugly-looking Nausicaan to push into his firing sector. Thus as it looked over Rodi's cover, it made eye contact with Rodi. Three heartbeats later, the Nausicaan head simply disappeared from a phaserblast.
"Red 5, Red 6. Immediate exit is recommended. Position untenable." Rodi grunted over the open channel as he rose up from the ground. The AI assistance on his rifle glitched through the monocle, the helmet blast having rendered it more or less useless.
"Red 6, Red 5, acknowledged. Rendezvous at exfil point!" Ari's response came peppered with weapon discharges of her own.
"Strike Red, back the way we came," Rodi ordered as he opened the helmet's faceplate and pushed the monocle off. With his AI aiming off, Rodi aligned the rifle more properly against his shoulder. The most recent reinforcement coming to support Rodi's opposition simply received a new opening in his chest cavity. That allowed Rodi to rise and walk back as his marines increased their fire rate once more behind him.
A pair of black boots entered Storr's vision. He blinked twice as they were sideways. How could the man be walking on the wall? One of the boots reared back and came forward rapidly, making contact with Storr's left eye socket with a sickening crack, and whipped his head around, the rest of his body reluctantly following. Red crept across his vision before gray, then black, each accompanied by a sharp jab of pain that felt like a knife from his eye through his brain and back out again. Another dry heave.
"You...you sexual freak! Why did you have to make a mockery of my people?! Our way of life! And not once but twice ruin my good name and reputation!!" Kontos' voice had gone up an octave and a half in rage as he continued on, the battle enraging around him seemingly not affecting him in the slightest. "An to think you planted your seed in her so that those babies will forever be a stain upon...upon BOTH our races!" The Deltan was hyperventilating now, and as he looked at the weapon in his hand, he had a newfound gleam in his eyes as he aimed it directly at Jaya. "But...but I can end that. Yes...Yes, I can...end that here and now."
What was this man jabbering...thoughts suddenly left him, but a surge of emotion filled his chest, seemingly to bursting. A scene that felt familiar, but he couldn't place it. No matter.
A vision of himself, standing atop a mountain peak, sword in hand. Lightning all around. A yell. A face. Jaya. Three more faces, but blurred. The triplets
Then one word. Spoken? Written in his vision? Again, it didn't matter, but the word did.
"PROTECT"
Garlake's hand shot out and grabbed Kontos' heel, pulling back with all his might. The disgraced Deltan diplomat fell with an undignified yelp and the disruptor clattering to the ground. Kontos made for the weapon, but Storr's vise-like grip kept the man in place as the Commandant dragged himself towards the Deltan. Struggled as he might, Kontos was not able to shake Storr's grip, and after several agonizing moments of dragging himself across the jagged floor, the two were face to face.
"You!!" Kontos sputtered in a nearly hysterical rage, spittle flicking across Garlake's face. "You...Let me go, now!"
"No..." Garlake said in a gravelly voice, his nose pressing against Kontos' and his good eye nearly staring into the man's soul. Bad-breath distance, as the Marine so liked to call hand-to-hand fighting. "No. Today, you die."
With that, Storr reached up with both hands, and his thumbs found purchase in the corners of the diplomat's eyes before he mounted Kontos, knees on both sides of the man's ribs and into his armpits to allow the most amount of leverage and the least amount of return movement. Then, summoning all the strength he had remaining, he pressed and pulled. A sickening, guttural, gurgling shriek, then a keening warble pierced the room, followed by a sickening crackle like dry, thin concrete bubbles popping, followed by a sound like a two-ton watermelon falling on the floor.
Then silence. Two men were on the ground, though only one was still breathing. Barely.
In the blur of pain-fueled rage, Teejay was still very much aware of Frost's exiting stage left. Despite their recent history, he had no intention of repaying the Grim Reaper's favor. Besides, having Ari out of the way allowed him to fully express himself and explore every murderous instinct screaming from his heart. Rifle, hands, and not so much inventive aggression as sheer medical cathartism ensued.
As he emerged triumphant and still vibrating on a homicidal frequency, Teejay was covered in blood and meaty chunks as the remains of recognizable Klingon form fell to the ground in a bony, fleshy mess. There were easier ways to end a life, but this one had been almost artistic. He followed the sound of female voices to join Ari and Jaya, looking to both as if he didn't appear emerging from a hell-spawned abattoir. He looked at Jaya.
"I can carry you out of here," Teejay offered. He still had some time before the painkillers wore off, and Ari could cover them well enough.
"Red 4, Charybdis needs a cover to exfil; need you on that. I've got Scylla." Ari interjected. They couldn't well enough leave Storr to fend for himself, even though he was more than capable.
Like vengeance incarnate, a bloodied Storr brought up the rear in a bloodied mess that refused to quit.
Meanwhile, Bao was not having much fun either. A group of mercenaries had apparently figured out that taking out the escape shuttle might be a good idea, as well as the fact that it was from there the systems were being suborned. On the plus, it was a small group, and they hadn't brought heavy weapons. The downside, Bao was still only one person with a phaser. He'd practiced to become competent, but he was no marine. So far, he was holding out using the shuttle itself as cover, but it was also distracting him from being able to pay attention to what else was going on. He managed to catch just enough of a break to hit the comms. "Red group, Dustoff under fire. Position stable. Your path is clear, but further overwatch is untenable at this time." He fiddled with his phaser for a moment, setting the power to the 'disintegrate' setting. He fired a shot toward his assailants, doing a rather impressive amount of carnage to the cargo box he hit.
"Red 5, Roger, inbound," Ari's reply came momentarily.
Checkmate, Red 6. Heading your way. Watch your fire," Rodi added to the command channel.
With their rescue mission complete, the Marine unit fell back to the moon pool and secured it in short order. First Ari and Jaya entered followed by Teejay and Storr. Rodi waited for his men to get inside before he followed and closed the hatch himself.
"Phantom to submersible, we're getting the mission accomplished signal. Our systems are rebooting but transporters should be available by the time you reach the ocean surface. Infirmary will be standing by for any wounded. Well done."
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